Eli5 why did humans take so long to create civilizations?

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I understand that it took quite a few million years for humans to accommodate to their environment, but why did apes for example stay the same approximately while we had all the advancement. For example why are we into philosophy, writing manifestos, infrastructure, complex design, technology etc while apes aren’t exactly.
Why did it take us 6 million years of hunting to think about farming?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The book, Sapiens, (I know its received deserved criticism) has an interesting view that it took some specialized communication to form social structures of more than around 50. Specifically, gossip, in the sense of communicating about members of the group who are not present. Animals without this almost never form social groups more than 50,but humans were able to quickly once the proper communication developed.

Not saying it’s the only reason, or even the most important, but I find it interesting to consider gossip in this way.

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